Week-long campus event to promote healthy body image

Andy Fry has 900 purple T-shirts in his office, ready for giveaways next week at the Student Recreational Sports Center and Wildermuth Intramural Center.

They read, “I Love My...” with a blank space finishing the sentence. People who want a shirt can take one home if they fill the blank with something positive about their bodies.

“Sometimes it’s really difficult for people to really love themselves,” said Fry, Campus Recreational Sports assistant director for fitness and wellness.  “It’s OK to love yourself. It’s OK to focus on the positive.”

The message of positive body image is the focus of “Celebrate EveryBODY Week,” an event sponsored by the IU Health Center’s Coalition for Overcoming Problem Eating/Exercise, Campus Recreational Sports, Crimson CORPS, Herman B Wells Library, Center for Human Growth, Psi Chi, Reflections/PanHellenic Council and IU School of Fine Arts.

The fifth annual event occurs Monday through Thursday and features activities and programs designed to reinforce positive body images throughout campus.

“Our goal is to get everyone, regardless of level of negative body image, to focus on something they love rather than what they don’t,” Fry said. “I want to at least increase the awareness of body image on campus.”

The week evolved from an eating disorder awareness and screening day, CAPS Director Nancy Stockton said. She said CAPS realized soon afterward that they wanted to raise awareness of something broader than eating disorders, so they began a partnership with Campus Recreational Sports with a focus on healthy body images.
Fry said CEBW is not designed to combat eating disorders, but will encourage students to seek help if needed.

“We’re not going to be the professionals to make that connection,” he said. “We’re trying to be a link in the chain.”

Fry said negative body image remains an issue among today’s college students.
Studies report that about 75 percent of women ages 15 to 30 are dissatisfied with their bodies and consider themselves on a diet, Stockton said. She said about 50 percent of men are dissatisfied with their appearance.

“It’s important to raise people’s awareness, to get people to take a broader look at themselves,” she said.

Freshman Jessica Mistretta said she notices problems with body image on campus and accredits much of this poor image to the media.

“The media portrays everyone of having all these perfect qualities that are not attainable,” she said. “They have to conform to a standard that doesn’t exist.”

At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Meghan Hanlon, M.A. of Counseling and Psychological Services, will give a talk titled “Body Love: How the Media Impacts Body Image” in Kelley School of Business 219 .

“The event is to get students to look more critically about media messages,” Stockton said.

In addition, anyone who visits the SRSC or WIC from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on any day during the week can contribute to a large “Be Strong, Be Confident, Be You” mosaic.

Fry said group exercise classes will also give participants the opportunity to sign pledge boards to affirm a commitment to a healthier body image.

“I want them to take a break and focus on the positives,” he said.

The positive messages, he said, will even spread to bathroom mirrors, where statements like “You’re more than this reflection shows” or “Lookin’ good” will be written.

“Nine out of ten times when people look into a mirror, they see something they don’t like,” Fry said. “I want this to be the one out of ten.